


Simba's Second Chance

by senshi05



Category: The Lion Guard (Cartoon), The Lion King (1994), The Lion King (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - The Lion King Fusion, Coils, F/M, Jungle, Peril, Snakes, What-If, coil - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28089738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/senshi05/pseuds/senshi05
Summary: Let's suppose... Simba wasn't alone in running from the stampede. Let's suppose... Nala had tagged along and ran away with him after the fall of Mufasa. Let's suppose... Timon and Pumbaa were never there.Having miraculously made across the desert, Simba and Nala find themselves all alone in a Jungle that threatens to snuff them out at a moment's notice. Nala especially receives the brunt of perilous jungle as Simba does his best to protect her. However, their biggest threat comes at nightfall where the former prince faces a harrowing choice...
Relationships: Nala/Simba (The Lion King)
Kudos: 5





	1. Everything Changes

Chapter 1: Everything Changes

"Nala please," a pleading voice called out to Nala as she barely clung to consciousness. "...wake up..." Water splashing across her face finally managed to snap her senses awake slowly but surely. "...don't leave me too." Her vision slowly came into focus as she opened her eyes and saw Simba's anxious expression looking down upon her. "Take it easy," he urged as she began to rise up from her left. The lioness cub could feel her gut crying for food with an audible gurgle.

"Man... I feel... so drained," Nala struggled to groan in her malnourished state, her body unsteadily wobbling. "Where... are we?" Her exhaustion seemed to largely dissipate upon looking at her surroundings and widening her eyes at the thriving Jungle all around them. "Okay, question number two," she continued, still processing this massive change in location, "how... did we even get here?" The wasteland she and Simba both suffered through was too fresh in her mind.

"Not terribly easily, that's for sure," Simba spoke up in a somewhat more lively manner. "I thought it was all over when you passed out but then this big miracle came into view after just a few more steps, give or take about a hundred." He felt immensely relieved to see Nala back up on her paws but made use of his attitude to mask his sappier emotions. "No offense but you really should've cut back on deer," the prince tactlessly complained. "Your mom was right for once..."

Nala shot Simba an offended look at his insensitive comment at her weight. "Well, I'll try to keep that in mind next time we slog through a whole des-" she began to snark back when a realization dawned on her. "Wait a second..." Her frown softened into an expression of bewilderment as she put two and two together. "You carried me all across the wasteland after I conked out?" She knew Simba couldn't have been in better shape than her, her mouth agape in awe.

Nala could remember the unforgiving heat of the sun and the way her stomach begged for food. The last thing she could recall was trailing just behind Simba before blacking out. It was then she thought her time had come. Yet Simba draped her across his back and struggled on with her weight on his shoulders. The thought of his sheer willpower and chivalrousness made her heart start to skip a beat at the thought. It was more than just gratitude. Somehow she could tell.

Simba's devil-may-care facade slightly faltered but he tried to act nonchalant. "It was either that or let the buzzards make a meal out of you," he claimed with a small gulp, trying not to remember the dread he felt when she collapsed. "Not that there was even a option to begin with." He allowed himself to at least sigh and drop his little grin for a bit, remembering what seemed like an entire lifetime ago. "I mean... I just thought about just what... he would do and, well, did it."

Nala's romantic feelings simmered down upon realizing who "he" was. "O-oh..." she sadly uttered, the heartbreaking memories resurfacing in her mind. The one reason they had survived that Wildebeest stampede, Simba's father and king of the Pride Lands, had lost his life in a great fall from a rock slide. Scar warned of how they'd be blamed for causing the tragedy and urged them to run away for their own safety. They made it but not without a few close calls with the Hyenas.

"Simba, I'm so..." Nala began to say, small tears welling up in her empathy. However, her apology was cut off by an awfully crude gurgling from her gut. "...so hungry..." she groaned unintentionally when her malnourished reared its ugly head. Simba's sorrowful expression became one of bafflement from the whole one-eighty the mood took. The lioness cub could only mentally berate herself for such a dumb slip of the tongue before Simba started to chuckle to her surprise.

"Join the club," Simba snickered with more a smile, amused by Nala's little blooper. "I only just scarfed down a snack to tie me over but there's more where they came from." He turned around to head off into the trees past their little clearing with a bit of pep in his step. "Hopefully, it'll be enough to keep you from keeling over entirely." The former prince could feel his despair lighten up thanks to her. It wasn't much but something was better than nothing. "So... you coming with?"

Nala snapped out of her bafflement in time to see that Simba was already a yard ahead of her. "Just wait up for me," she indignantly retorted. "Still starving to near death here in case you forgot." She scampered up as much as her feeble legs would allow her to, pushing through the fatigue. "So what's the plan of attack?" the lioness cub asked as she drew along side her best friend. "I don't suppose there's a short cut to Pride Rock..." She saw his facade briefly faltered.

"With our luck so far?" Simba snarked with an eyebrow raised. "I wouldn't be surprised at this point." He hoped that his facade was holding up as the thought of home tugged at his emotions harder and harder, especially as his guilt for Nala grew. "For now, we should stuff our faces and get some rest for the night." A sharp hiss from afar sent shivers down his spine unbeknownst to his weary friend, his attempts to hide it slipping. "There's no telling what this place's got us..."

\------

"I'll certainly give you this one, son," Mufasa proudly proclaimed to Simba as they laid beneath the starry sky. "The way you put yourself before Nala was quite noble." The Pride Land's prince couldn't help but blush at such a recollection. "Well, yeah, you know," he struggled to spit out at first. "Friends don't leave friends all high and dry with hyenas closing in." His majesty couldn't help chuckling warmly at his boy's terribly unsubtle infatuation, remembering his youth. "Yes 'just friends' you say."

Simba rolled his eyes over his father's obnoxious teasing. "Great, as if Zazu wasn't bad enough about it," he griped, rolling himself away from his father to hide all the red on his face. "I just saw how scared she was and did what you would've done, you know?" Despite his annoyance, the lion cub couldn't help but recall the image of Nala's terrified expression and the strong passion it'd drawn out of him, his frustrations simmering down. "I mean, I like her but I dunno if I actually 'like her' like her."

Mufasa compassionately snickered with a warm smile, endeared by Simba's all too familiar predicament. "I can assure you that I speak from experience, son," he claimed, his childhood memories with Sarabi returning to his mind. "Girls never fail to fall for young males who stand up for them despite the odds." His majesty looked on at his son's back turned towards him with empathy and recounted his own talk with his own father years back. "It's a clear sign of how much she means to you..."

"I guess," Simba managed to shrug, trying to sound casual enough. He was too embarrassed to reply but knew that his father was right on the money as usual. All the same, he couldn't help but think back to how he stood before Nala to protect her only for the hyenas to laugh him off like he was some kind of joke. Heck, the prince couldn't fully blame them with his pathetic excuse for a roar that gave away his feelings of fear in the moment. He did love Nala but wanted to prove it properly.

Somehow.

\------

"Now that I'm not starving to near death," Nala remarked, snapping Simba out of his memories, "this whole Jungle place isn't too bad at all." The prince could see that the formerly famished feline had perked up after filling up on a few fruits and had that wide-eyed look on her face he always loved. "If we had to get stranded, at least it was someplace exotic as my folks would've put it." It helped alleviate his guilt over what she had to endure out in the unforgiving dessert.

Simba could also agree with Nala on their current location being fairly fascinating now that they had time to take it all in. The air was humid but not oppressively so with the heat largely filtered by the foliage overhead thanks to the trees. It helped that the sun was setting for the evening, creating an orange hue across the sky that gave the cubs a warm and fuzzy feeling they had needed. He smiled while inhaling fresh air to really put his mind more at ease. That is, right until...

"BRAAAAAPPPTTT!"

Both Simba and Nala's eyes shot open together in surprise at the noise. However, it was his highness that was quick to take a whiff with his sharp nose and let out a grossed out groan. "A heads up would've been nice, you know," he indignantly declared, shooting a dirty look at a blushing Nala. "Well, gee," his BFF shot back with an offended look herself, "it's almost like stuffing our guts with fruit was a bad idea." She let off another blast of bad gas on purpose just to spite him.

"A better idea that starving," Simba retorted with a groan, trying not to let the flatulence get to him to little avail. "I would've sprung for a mole or two but lugging girls across a wasteland does a number on you." He drew up in front of Nala to avoid her expression of indignation while he felt gurgling in his bowels. "Excuse me?" she proclaimed with a highly raised eyebrow. "Oh, you so did not just call me fat-" Simba cut her off as he got his butt in her face and let one rip.

"BRAAAAAAAAAAPPPPTTTTT!"

Nala stopped in her track when the noxious fumes invaded her nostrils and forced her to cover her nose with both her paws, groaning in disgust. "I'd say that makes us even," Simba snarked with a snicker. The lioness cub waved the woefully waft away as she looked up to see her best friend actually laughing. Much as she did not appreciate the stink bomb, the foul-smelling feline could not help but feel happy that the former prince was happy himself in spite of everything.

"Actually, this does," Nala declared as she turned herself around to display her own glutes. However, an awfully audible gurgle was emitted from her bowels as she felt something less gassy began to build up in her bottom. "Uh, scratch that," she groaned with a strained expression, feeling the need to really unload. "I know fruits just go on through you but..." The lioness cub groaned as the pressure got worse while Simba gulped, knowing a bad number two from experience.

"There should be some bushes past these trees," Simba suggested, sympathetic to Nala's plight. "I'll wait here while you, well, do your business." He felt a strong secondhand embarrassment even as she scampered on past. "Take my word for it," the lioness cub warned urgently, "cover your nose tightly for this one." His highness looked on as she rushed past the trees ahead and into the bushes out of sight. Once it got all noisy again, he made sure to do as advised.

Despite the crude circumstances, Simba couldn't help but let his smile return in feeling a type of relief that he had urgently needed for sometime. Nala had always being a spunky tomboy who'd never fail to volley back her own snark or even flatulence as if she was really his twin brother. Their little stink-off made him feel like nothing had changed at all. Of course, behind that attitude was a girly girl who he'd protect in a heartbeat. One he had dragged down with him...

Guilt returned to Simba as he remembered why she was here in the first place and how starvation nearly did her in because of him. He invited her to Scar's surprise and nearly let her die in the stampede just like... him, gulping at the thought. If not the Wildebeests, the hyenas would've exacted their revenge on them for the Elephant Graveyard incident. Now they were in uncharted territory with creatures that wouldn't hesitate to devour them alive. The prince gulped.

"I will keep her safe," Simba reaffirmed to himself, closing his eyes in trying to keep his doubts at bay. "No matter what... dad..."

\------

Nala sighed in sheer relief after letting it all out and steeled her snooze for the stink. All the while, her mind drifted to Simba and the way he got all cheeky with his own cheeks. The way he laughed so happily about it warmed her heart, especially with his father's death still fresh in mind. She sighed sadly while recalling how he rushed ahead towards Mufasa and begged him to wake up. The lioness cub had been able to tell that his highness's pleadings wouldn't be answered...

So the fact that Simba could still be that rambunctious boy who'd be bold enough to fart in Nala's face was sweet... in a stinky sort of way. Of course, she knew that deep down that he was more that just cocky from how he got between her and Shenzi. The lioness cub was scared witless while the prince definitely stood before her ready to go out swinging. That moment and imagining him carrying her across the desert always made her smile in her increasing infatuation.

"I guess Zazu really was onto something," Nala told herself with a blush before her nose picked up on something. The sweet scent seemed to overwhelm the rank stench and put a smile on the lioness cub's face with how... intoxicating it was. She followed the fragrance just behind a nearby tree, her legs moving her towards it almost without her knowing. Just around the trunk was a surprisingly tall flower that had a long stem sprouting up and bending back to the ground.

Nala took in more of the addicting scent and scampered up to the head of the flower, intrigued by the unusual plant. The head had no petals but rather a round hole that emitted the fragrance and appeared to be almost... moving. At a slow rate but she could swear that it was bending over further. The lioness cub got beneath the head in her curiosity and cocked her head. She couldn't help sitting down to lift her upper body for a better look, the scent still disarming as usual.

Next thing Nala knew, the head suddenly opened up its hole and lunged downwards...


	2. To The Rescue...?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when you rush in to save your beloved only to fail? For Simba, he re-experience one of the most harrowing moment of his young life...

Chapter 2: To The Rescue...?

Simba's sharp ears picked up on Nala crying out frantically before it was suddenly cut off. His eyes snapped open in dread before he immediately rushed towards her and picked up on the sweet scent. The former prince of the Pride Lands berated himself for letting Nala go off on her own when predators greater than even his father could have been lurking about. He rushed around the tree trunk where he skidded to a stop and felt himself paralyzed with growing horror.

There before Simba's eyes was Nala's upper body being engulfed by the large plant's head with her fore-arms pinned to her chest, both legs flailing about. He could hear her muffled screaming, making every noise imaginable with her mind saturated with sheer terror. The plant seemed to be lifting her off the ground and slowly making a gulping motion as the cub's body was sucked in bit by bit into it. The bulge she created grew with the plant gaining a grip with each slurp.

Simba could barely breath period and felt utterly terrified even as he fully processed exactly what was happening. Nala was being devoured alive by an animal eating plant right before his very eyes. The one he loved was being reduced to nourishment for the local fauna. The lioness cub's screams were barely audible but he could make out, "Simbaaa!" being repeated again and again in her pleadings. They got harder to hear with the mouth sucking itself up to past her paws.

Within the plant's gullet, Nala was completely immobilized by the tight quarters but couldn't keep from acting out in her desperation. She could feel the plant really taking its sweet time to inch her body further into its own while slathering her in what seemed to be what it had for saliva. The cub's heart raced and every breath was uncontrollable fast. She was being eaten. A lion reduced to mulch for overgrown weeds. Tears continued soaking into her furry face frantically.

Simba shook his head in trying to snap himself out of his state of shock enough to rush forth and urge himself to save Nala just as he had vowed. The plant repeatedly sucked up the lioness cub until it gradually left only her bottom half exposed with her tail swished feverishly and her legs kicking wildly. "Sorry, Nala," the disgraced prince apologized in advanced before leaping up to chomp on his crush's tail. He winced hard at Nala's inevitable cry of pain, feeling far too guilty.

Simba braced himself just before Nala's hind-paws kicked him uncontrollably, deciding he deserved it in exchange for biting her tail. The payoff seemed to be worth it as his excess weight was pulling his best friend down along with the plant. He felt his hind paws touched the ground while praying that the plant will give up and release the lioness cub. His highness dug his footing into the dirt for some semblance of leverage and held as steady as he possibly could period.

Simba kept urging himself on mentally as he felt his paws slid forth ever so slightly and saw the plant coming up to Nala's thighs with a few more gulps. He told himself that he had to just hold out for just a little longer and wear out the cub-eating plant. However, what little hopes the Pride Land's former prince had began to crumble when he felt Nala's tail sliding through his teeth slowly but surely. He begged to whatever gods were up there to afford him just one minute.

However, it only took half a minute for Nala's tail to slowly slide out of Simba's teeth and send him toppled to the ground. His highness quickly rose up in the vain hope that he could try again but only saw the harrowing sight of the plant lifting Nala's bottom half way out of his range. It raised its head up higher than before so the lioness cub's legs hung upside down while she screamed her lungs out louder than ever before. "No..." Simba could only whisper heart-brokenly.

Gravity helped the plant swallow Nala's writhing thighs into its mouth, leaving only her hind paws and bushy tail tip for a despondant Simba to see. It only took a second for those to slip into the maw and allow the lioness cub's body to slowly glide down the stem, rocking about helplessly. The dethroned prince couldn't believe that it was even real until images of his father's death flashed before his eyes. All he could do was witness Mufasa descend to his ultimate doom below.

Just as Nala was. She could only wriggle about so much in the slimy innards of the cub-eating plant. Her forearms were pinned to her chest while her hind legs were both pressed together with her tail. The lioness cub could only look ahead at the squelching tunnel she was slowly being squeezed down with her eyes able to see through the darkness. The gradual descent was enough to make the heartbreaking reality all sink in, triggering a growing pressure in her bowels.

"I..." Simba began bargaining, backing away. "I... didn't mean to..." The sight of his beloved entombed within the cub eating plant's innards seared itself into his mind as he felt the same grief he felt back then. "Nala... I'm... sorry..." Tears flooded out from his eyes as his crying grew into a barely restrained sob. His mind kept berating him for not holding on just a little longer and having such a weak bite. It was all because of him that another loved one suffered a painful death.

"BRAAAAAAAAPPTTTTTT!"

The crude cheese cutting sliced through Simba's grief like a sword as he raised his tear stained face up to see the plant convulsing in response. Another loud "BRAAAAAPPPPTTTT!" blasted through its mouth before the bulge that was Nala began rising up the stem. The has-been prince didn't dare get his hopes up but still prayed for a miracle as the bulge neared the mouth and caused the stem to bend forward. The mouth appeared to be upchucking with each and every gag.

Sure enough, Nala's tail poured out of the mouth followed by her legs far quicker than they'd been slurped up. Her torso and forearms slipped right out before finally spitting her head out and sending her slime-covered body to the ground. Simba finally snapped out of his shock enough to race forth and get below his beloved so he could break her fall like the prince he was. However, the chivalrous cub overestimated his durability as his crush almost crushed him upon impact.

"Are... you okay, Nala?" Simba managed to groan out, his limbs all sprawled out with his front pinned to the ground. However, none of it matter so long as his best friend was okay. "Define 'okay,'" Nala snarked back, clearly too shaken to immediately rise up off of him. "If anybody asks, you helped me claw out of there and that's all..." A second passed before they shared a hearty snicker from both her sass and the sheer fact that they got out of such an ordeal with flatulence.

However, despite their laughter over another misadventure, Simba couldn't shake off the harrowing memories and emotions that it invoked deep down. Nala's tail slipping out of his mouth replayed in his head beneath the fun front he was putting up for her. Every time the former prince tried to protect his crush, he only delayed the inevitable and needed a stroke of luck to bail him out. He knew next time he wouldn't be too lucky. Unless, of course, there wouldn't be a next time.


	3. Night Terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Simba firmly declares that Nala will return to the Pride Lands despite his best friend's protests. Just as she thinks that it can't get any worse, an uninvited guest arrives to prove her wrong...

Chapter 3: Night Terrors

"Dunno about you," Nala began wearily yet non-chalantly, "but nearly becoming plant fertilizer takes a lot out of a girl." She grunt as she climbed up towards a wide and sturdy branch with Simba right before her. "Though I'll give the Jungle this," she began as she looked out at the night sky, "it's actually really peaceful at night." Simba got onto the branch while she took her time to take in the full moon in all its beauty. "If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't be seeing this view..."

Simba sighed deeply at this while Nala joined him on the branch, knowing what he needed to break to her. "If it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have to endure this torment," he lamented while walking towards the near edge of the branch. His crush couldn't help but detect his dower tone of voice. "Try getting plenty of shut-eye tonight," the former prince ordered. "We'll need every bit to get you back to Pride Rock... somehow." His choice of words weren't lost on her.

"Me?" Nala asked with a visible look of unease in her eyes. "Aren't you... coming home?" She looked at Simba from behind, afraid of the inevitable answer. "Uncle Scar said it himself," he replied, hanging his head shamefully. "The whole kingdom will see me as the one who got my father, their king, killed." The lioness cub felt her heart sink upon hearing her best friend hold in his tears. "Accident or not, nobody will be able to see me as anything other than a murderer."

"So what?" Nala asked, trying to keep it together. "I'm just never going to see you again?" She could see Simba's shoulders tense up before going down in a sigh. "This exile is my burden to carry, my price to pay," he declared with an attempt at a firm tone of voice. "You only got caught up and nearly died twice because of it." The lioness cub heard her best friend paused to swallow in his all sorrow. "Because of me." She could make out the immense guilt he harbored.

"But..." Nala began, trying hard not to cry herself, "that's not fair..." Simba only laid his front upon the branch with his fore-paws cushioning his head. "It's about as fair as it's gonna get," he declared firmly yet wearily. "You won't last another day out here and we both know it." The former prince of the Pride Lands didn't dare look back at the teary-eye expression all over Nala's face. "Now go... to sleep so... we can prepare you... for home..." He yawned as both his eyes closed.

Simba kept telling himself mentally how this was for the best. He knew full well that Nala had a family waiting for her back at Pride Rock. Uncle Scar would likely vouch for her to so nobody would hassle her at the very least. However, the cub's slumber was slow going as a selfish desire to keep her clashed in his heart. Even if he was exiled, Simba had only just realized his true feelings for her. He couldn't help but replay Nala's previous words in his head. It truly was not fair...

"As you wish, your majesty," Nala despondently replied with bitterness mixing in with his sorrow. All she could do was sit on the far end of the branch and look at Simba from a distance, tearing up how the gap between them would be miles wider. The lioness cub knew that she had a family at home waiting for her to return safely but... imagining life without Simba was just wrong. His cute cocksure attitude. His bright smile. The way he'd stood between danger and herself.

Everything Nala loved would slip away.

"He'ssss right, you know?" a haughty voice hissed, sending shivers down Nala's spine. "You wouldn't lasssst one day out here." She rose her head in high alert in time to find a python's head slithering out of the shadows above her and into the moonlight. "An ever sssso fragile female ssssuch asssss yourself hasss but one purpossse in the unforgiving Jungle." The lioness cub felt a paralyzing feeling of fear permeating her body, her eyes and mouth wide open. "My ssssupper."

The purple python's evil glare was mere inches from Nala's face and made her too terrified to even utter a feeble meow. The sharp glint in his eyes spoke of a deep craving to the lioness cub while the flicking of his tongue tasted the succulent scent over her body. She got the message loud and clear: the snake was sizing her up for his late dinner. The damsel in distress didn't dare move a muscle in fear of the serpent's speed when something brushed against her fur below.

Nala glanced down to find the python's tail slithering around her waistline in a full loop and pinning her fore-arms to her belly. Even if she wasn't frozen in fear, her body wouldn't even be able wriggle free as the tail meticulously made its way around in another loop over the previous. The frightened feline could recall her mother's stories about big snakes that could crush grown lions in their coils, subduing them with either many around their body or one around their throat.

And Nala was about to become one such story.

Simba was slightly woken up by the silent noises coming from behind him and groaned, assuming it was Nala's whining. "Look, there's... just no sense arguing about it," he goggling managed to articulate in his semi-slumber, completely ignorant to his best friend's plight. "Just... please... go to sleep already." The dethroned prince of Pride Lands yawned, trying to sleep again despite the disturbance. He couldn't have known of the purple python snickering at his expense.

"I'm ssssure you mussssst be praying for a quick end," the python hissed as Nala raised her head back to face him. "A few sssecondsss of pain before meeting your maker in heavenly peacccce." The idea of actual death petrified the lioness cub as she bargained mentally how this couldn't even be happening. "However, I'm afraid that I'm in the mood for sssssome good food." By now, she had been cocooned in thickening coils up to her shoulders and hadn't noticed in her terror.

"S-Si...," Nala started to stammer through her immense fear, unaware of the python's tail encircling her neck. "S-Sim..." She had glanced towards her friend upon hearing him stirring and was desperate for any sort of help. "Simba-URK!" she could only yell out when two coils squeezed her throat mercilessly right out the gate. Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets upon being choked while her mouth went agape in trying to let any air in or out. Her only chance was lost.

Nala could feel her entire body becoming encased within the python's scaly coils from neck to hind-legs and slowly being squeezed all around. If the pressure exerted on her wasn't strenuous enough, the strangling coils around her throat were unbearable. The only sounds she could utter were hacking wheezes that barely got even a single air particle without it feeling like death itself. However, the cherry on top of this whole torture was the expression on the python's face.

Unable to move her head, Nala could only look back at the purple python's smirk that seemed so delighted. Almost as though his hunger was already sated. It didn't take long for it to become painfully clean even as she endured the constricting coils. Her suffering was nothing but the sadistic serpent's appetizer. Every hack and wheeze was but a quaint performance for him. The lioness cub could tell that the stranglehold he had her in was little more that a bit of his strength.

The need for oxygen was almost equal to Nala's humiliation over her suffering being but entertainment for the purple python. She could feel him deliberately whittling away her strength slowly but surely with the occasional sharp squeeze to her throat. How slowly the lioness cub died was completely up to him and his stomach. "Sim-ba... "she managed to croak out, praying for his rescue. Her eyelids began to droop as she glanced towards a stirring Simba just before her...


	4. Pick Your Poison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Simba finds Nala seconds from being ingested alive with two options before him: run away with his life or charge on ahead despite the risks. Her life hangs in the balance by a thread as the young prince finds himself tempted by the coward's way out, doubting in his own abilities. What choice will he make?

Chapter 4: Pick Your Poison

"What kind of surprise are we talking about here?" Nala inquired with a raised eyebrow as she strolled alongside Simba. "It wouldn't really be a surprise if Uncle Scar gave it away," the Pride Land's Prince snarked back with a smile. "He just told me that he felt bad for what happened at the Elephant Graveyard so he's hoping to cheer us up." His best friend smiled back in delight. "Your uncle can be kind of creepy but he can be real nice." She realized her words and blushed sheepishly. "No offense..."

Simba couldn't help but chuckle. "Hey, it'd be weird if you thought he wasn't," he assured before blushing ever so slightly himself. "Though actually... he only asked me to come alone." The fairly flustered feline tried not to look directly at Nala while remembering his father's advice on that night. "It's just that... I felt guilty for what you had to go through with those Hyenas and how I should make it up to you." He only glanced over to find her cheeks going red accompanied by an awfully touched smile.

"I never knew you could be such a gentleman," Nala replied with a giggle, endeared by Simba's attempt at sincerity. "Not gonna lie, that adventure was scary," she began to admit with her smile dropping slightly, "but I always think about the way you stood before me like a real hero." The lioness cub couldn't help but close her eyes and grin internally over her gallant prince facing off against Shenzi, Banzai and Ed all alone just for her. "I don't think I ever told you how much it meant to me."

Simba felt his heart skip a beat at Nala's near confession and wanted to reciprocate immediately. "Well..." the young male started shakily, "I am the Pride Land's Prince." He knew what he wanted to say in his heart but his mouth wouldn't seem to let him. "It's my royal duty to make sure I keep everyone safe no matter what." The flustered feline looked at his best friend's rather sassy smirk and could almost hear her say, "Really?" Even he couldn't believe he just pulled such a lame cop out.

"Let's... not keep Uncle Scar waiting," Simba stammered as he drew up in front of Nala, hoping to change the subject. He could only sigh when his crush snickered once more at his obvious shyness and mentally told himself that he'll get it right during Uncle Scar's surprise. The Pride Land Prince told himself definitively that his feelings would be made known loud and proud. If he could look a trio of hyenas dead in the eye, how hard was confessing? It'd be the happiest moment of their lives.

Today would be a special day...

\------

"Simba-URK!"

Simba moaned in his semi-slumbering state as his ears picked up on Nala's voice and hissing sounds that followed. His still sleepy mind mistook the latter noise for his best friend's flatulence still petering out, lifting his head slightly from his arms. "Look, I know it's a raw deal but it's the best I can think of," the former prince groggily retorted to what he thought was his crush trying to talk him out of his decision again. "You can get on my case... all you want... in the morning..."

Simba attempted to return to sleep when his ears picked up on some laughter along with that same hissing. "Oh, ssssshe won't be here in the morning, your highnesssss," the reptilian voice gloated with a haughty tone of voice Scar would've blushed at. His Highness began to open his eyes when he didn't recognize the voice and slowly began to push up from the branch with his fore-paws. "What's with your voice?" he groaned out. "You sound so..." His head glanced back.

"...strangled..."

One look caused Simba's mind to wake up in an instant and get him jumping back on all fours, fear shooting adrenaline throughout his veins. He prayed for but a second that he was still dreaming until he turned himself around and felt that freezing feeling of horror again. At the branch's base was Nala encased in scaly coils that shifted about to squeeze her entire body mercilessly. Only her head was actually visibly along with both hind legs dangling from the cocoon's bottom...

Simba felt his guts clench up just looking at Nala's expression as two small but strong coils squeezed her neck. Her eyes were borderline bloodshot as they could only give a deathly stare straight ahead that begged for either rescue or a quick end to it all. Her mouth was agape as if in perpetuate fear while trying to draw in what little air the coils would permit, creating wheezes one would expect from elders at death's door. The helplessness of it all was too utterly palpable.

"How it must eat you up," the purple python gloated in an almost curious manner. "A 'mighty lion' ssssuch asss yoursssself at the merccccy of a fellow predator." He kept flicking his tongue to taste Nala's scene as it became more tinged with fear by the second, the perfect spice to his meals. "Any moment now, you will be little more than a midnight sssnack dissssolving alive in my sssstomach acidssss." He snicked with such naked evilness. "Sssso degrading, wouldn't you agree?"

The purple python paused in pretending to wait for an answer while shifting his coils around Nala for another squeezing. Her furry body was delightful to feel in his grip and even more enjoyable to torture. Even without looking at her blue-violet face, the sadistic serpent could feel her pulse and heartbeat slowly fading with every bit of pressure he put upon her. Like a schoolyard bully, seeing the way weaklings buckled under his immense strength satisfied his ego immensely.

Nala choked painfully from the two coils tightening their grip around her throat once again. If her windpipe wasn't being tortured enough, she could swear that her bones were but seconds from breaking like twigs. The lioness cub could tell that the purple python could do just that but didn't want to damage his new toy already. If she had any chance of giving a straight answer, it would be, "Yes." It was a humiliating experience being some overgrown worm's personal plaything.

Nala could feel her life actually draining from her very body with every breath she couldn't take when she saw Simba in the corner of her eyes. She couldn't move her head for a better look but rolled her eyes ever so slightly downwards to find her best friend wide awake and horrified. It seem like the purple python hadn't noticed that he had gotten up and was wide open to be knocked away by a surprise attack any time. A spark of hope started to flicker within her heart...

Simba received Nala's message from the pleading glint in her eyes, begging her knight in shining armor to save her in her time of peril. By now, he would've dashed in and pounced upon the purple python's head in order to at least loosen his grip on her. However, it felt as though the python had its coils cocooning him with his inability to even move forward. His Highness couldn't forget this very same feeling when he witness the one he loved swallowed whole by a plant.

Just like then, Simba could only stand from a distance helplessly while Nala was put through hell itself before his very eyes. The idea of rushing in was quelled by the traumatic memory of how he had only delayed the inevitable. The most he could possibly do to the purple python was put himself at the top of the evil reptile's menu. His inner heroics urged him to damn the torpedoes and save the day. However, his anxieties told him that he'd essentially be committing suicide.

"Run," Uncle Scar had urged. "Run away and never come back."

Simba swallowed harder than ever before as the words replayed in his mind and steamed up his train of thought. He could just jump off the branch and onto the study one right below with the right timing in his pounce. The purple python would be too distracted constricting Nala to go after him so he could make it to the ground and gain enough distance to be home free. All he would have to do was leave the one he loved to her suffering and run away to save his own skin.

"It's not like I want to," Simba mumbled to himself, unable to look away from Nala's torture. "I just can't save anyone." It was Mufasa who saved Nala from the Hyenas, he barely dragged her through the desert half-dead and couldn't hang onto her properly when a plant was making her into fertilizer. The former prince of the Pride Lands kept reassuring himself how it was for the best. Right? All he had to do was jump onto the next branch down. Right? It was just that simple.

Right?


	5. A Royal Redemption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Could you really rush in like a knight in shining armor when your girl need rescuing? Wouldn't it be far more easier to walk the other way? Well, Simba?

Chapter 5: A Royal Redemption

"Are we... there... yet?" Nala managed to groan out after what seemed like an eternity. Simba was but a few feet in front of her or at least something resembling him. The wasteland's dry heat was literal murder upon the furry felines as they were quickly running on empty. "Between this... and... the Hyenas... being devoured to the bone... doesn't seem too bad..." Each step felt like they were carrying a ton of coconuts and made their body's sway from side to side, both on the verge of collapsing.

"Depends on... where there... even is," Simba panted out with his body exhausted from the initial run from the brambles alone. The guilt grew in his heart as he couldn't see any sort of shelter or even water as far as his eyes could see. His suffering was one thing but Nala didn't deserve to endure this punishment. "It... might not be too late," the dethroned prince began hopefully. "If we turn back now... you'd be back... safe and-" A loud thumping noise cut him off, scaring him to near death.

Simba soon found his fears intensified when he turned around to find Nala laying listlessly on the wasteland's hard ground. "No no no no," he repeated while rushing towards her frantically. "Please not you too..." The former prince of the Pride Lands felt a burst of adrenaline carry him forth as fresh bad memories of his own father's corpse replayed in his mind. He came up to Nala's head, her eyes both closed shut with her mouth making groans and mumbles in her overheated state. She was alive.

For now.

"Nala..." Simba panted out in his grief, his chest heaving and his eyes tearing. "I'm so sorry." Whether she could hear him or even response didn't matter to him as his highness continued to sob, looking at how Nala's body was all sprawled across the ground. If she didn't at least get rehydrated, vultures would come down to pick her dry. All because her knight in shining armor dragged her into all this. For all he knew, the famished female either had an hour or a minute remaining to breath her last.

Simba desperately looked around for anybody or anything at all. "Help!" he cried out at the top of his lungs. "HELP!" However, his pleas only screamed into the void as it became plain as day that he was on his own. The former prince looked upon Nala's fallen form once again and swallowed hard before lowering his head towards her belly. He managed to pull himself under his beloved's chest and rise back up with her draped across his back. His paws took one step after another despite the weight.

Simba's guts gurgled audibly as his hunger and fatigue began to catch up with him with his fear settling down. He managed to shift Nala's body around so she was all over him from his head to his tail, mitigating the weight distribution ever so slightly. Even then, every step felt unbearable as the prince moved forth to a seemingly endless horizon. A small part of him was urging him to ditch the dead weight and at least save his own skin. To that part of his soul, he gave a firm, "Absolutely not."

Simba could hear Nala's groans and mumbling with her mouth near his left ear, her mind drifting in and out of consciousness like a tango with the Grim Reaper. "I got you into this mess so I'll get you out of it," he vowed with every bit of resolve it took to take even a single step more. "I won't let anybody else die because of me." The prince prayed that something would appear upon the horizon soon. "Especially not you because... because I..." He steeled his soul to finally say three words for himself.

"I love you."

\------

Nala could physically feel herself reaching the end of her rope with the steady strangulation the coils continued to put her through. Both eye-lids slowly drooped as she fought the urge to pass out. Her throat was practically closed shut with not even the bare minimum of oxygen getting through. The rest of her body felt the painful grip the coils had her in actually increasing. This was it. Her final moment alive. The lioness cub soon realized that death had finally come to claim her.

"Sssssuch arrogant thingsssss, you lion cubssss are," the purple python hissed, rubbing salt in Nala's wounded pride. "You tresssspassss on my territory assss if you own the placcccce like sssssome king and queen." He made sure that his smug mug was all she could see as her strength began to give out. "Ignorant of the pricccce you would have to pay." The sadistic serpent took a good look at his victim's choked up expression. "And pay for it you sssshall with interessssst..."

Nala felt the dread within her soul reach new heights when the purple python opened his mouth and put his wide maw out on full display. The black hole that was his gullet stared back at her as the entrance to her eternal resting place. The most horrifying part was that the sadistic serpent was intent on ingesting her alive, allowing her to live through the painful digestion process. The lioness cub could only accept her grim fate with tears that soaked into her furry cheeks.

Nala looked on breathless as the purple python brought his maw up to her face close enough to let her smell his horrible halitosis. However, the exact second he came in to engulf her head was interrupted by Simba's right clawed paw batting him away with all his might. Despite being a cub, his right hook was enough to send the snake's head slamming into another branch just above with a very audible thumping sound and make him cry out like a baby. All in but five seconds.

The sensation of actually breathing felt unreal as Nala gasped in precious oxygen like her life depended on it. Mainly because it actually did. The two coils looped around her neck had relaxed when the purple python had gotten knocked away. The pressure around her body had let up as well but the cocoon of coils still kept her contained. Even if she couldn't move much, it didn't detract from the lioness cub's pure elation. She smiled for what seemed like the first time.

"You still hungry?" Nala heard Simba's vengeful tone of voice. "Because there's more where that came from." She felt utterly spent from the constriction putting her through the wringer yet managed to lift her head up to see the previous prince of the Pride Lands standing right before her. His piercing scowl was aimed up at the purple python but it told the lioness cub that he was ready to defend her to the bitter end. Her heart skipped a few beats at the very valiant image.

"Simba..." Nala managed to croak out as her face turned bright red. In those few seconds, her best friend's bravery and courage had captivated her heart just as it had back in the Elephant Graveyard. However, this time, he truly had managed to save her life before it was too late. She had always admired the fearless hero behind his admittedly cute cockiness like with most males yet this was awfully... different. It felt as though she could truly tell herself the truth at long last.

"I love you..."


	6. Simba's Second Chance

Chapter 6: Simba's Second Chance

The purple python struggled to keep his left eye open after it hit the branch hard while enduring the sharp slashing to his right cheek. He looked back down where he found Simba glaring back up at him with the special kind of moxie a lion cub would only dare to exhibit. The seething serpent mentally kicked himself for being so cause up in Nala's torture that he never even paid attention to the former prince of the Pride Lands. A mistake he would fix as he slithered down...

Simba couldn't actually believe what he had done himself. The cub'd been this close to leaping down the tree and allowing Nala to become the purple python's midnight snack. Yet just as he was about to jump down to the lower branch, some kind of force from within caused him to bolt forward and slash the serpent in the jaw. He couldn't explain it. It just felt right. Even if he couldn't protect Nala, the former prince of the Pride Lands knew of once way to help her out of danger.

"Not gonna lie, kid," the purple python hissed with tempered fury, "part of me issss quite impressssssed by the ballsssss on you." He lowered his head down just before Nala and looked the scowling Simba straight in the eye, their faces a mere two feet from each other. "I've known adult predatorssss who would look out for number one when it came down to it." His tongue flicked out to pick up on Simba's anxieties on his scent. "Thisssss little wench musssst be sssspeccial."

Simba steeled himself further to not let his inner fear show upon his seering scowl while taking a step back slowly. "Yesssss, I've met your kind before too often," the purple python taunted while slowly moving his haughty expression closer. "The lovessssssick young boy who musssterssss up enough courage to ssssave the damsssel in disssstressss." Simba continued to move backwards with a hard swallow across the branch with the snake following. Just as hoped...

"Unfortunately, you all ssssseem to underesssstimate the conssssquencccccessss of your actionssss," the purple python hissed with an very condescending tone. Simba was tempted to banter back just when his right hind paw stepped off the branch by accident in his shock. "The heat of the moment hasssss passssed but you've only made it worssse for yourssself if anything." He regained his footing within the second and realized he reached the end of the branch.

Nala's fatigue gave way to dread as she saw Simba just barely keeping himself from falling off the branch with the purple python all up in his face. Even in her worn out state, the lioness cub could put two and two together much to her horror. The former prince of the Pride Lands planned to keep the snake busy while she escaped from his coils and got down the tree, leaving her friend for food. The female feline couldn't decide to be heartbroken or touched by such a sacrifice.

"It would've been ssssso ssssimple to jusssst leap off the branch," the purple python spat at Simba in an almost disdainful manner. "I would've been too dissssstracted playing with my food to realizzzzze my sssssecond courssssse had flown the coup." He could tell that the lion cub's strong expression hid the true terror that his heart was experiencing, looking down as such an act. "I all but handed you an esssscape on a ssssilver platter asss the humansssss put it."

Simba took a deep breath through his nose as he kept the purple python from getting under his skin. "Now your optionssss will be how you choosssse to die," the sadistic serpent sneered like a disapproving parent. "Either you fall towardsssss your death and hopefully go out in an inssssstant or I digest you slowly in my sssstomach." The memory of his father falling to the ground managed to shake up his strong facade no matter how hard he tried. "The choice isss your'sss."

All Simba could do at that moment was lower his gaze with a shameful expression to concede defeat without words. He could only pray that allowing himself to be swallowed whole would give Nala the time to climb down the tree to safety. This was what the lion cub felt he deserved, what was the only way to atone for the suffering he had caused to both his love and his family. To become nourishment for a superior predator was the disgraceful demise befitting of his misdeeds.

"For oncccce, you've made the right deccccissssion," the purple python hissed with a smirk, relishing in his prey's crushed spirits. "You bleeding heart-typesss do make for good appetizzzerssss if nothing else." He widened his maw out wide and positioned himself to start with Simba's head, planning to slurp him up like water from a stream. He could almost feel the young lion cub wriggling in his guts, begging to be spared from his slow and painful death. How he couldn't wait...

Nala slowly slipped her hind legs out of the coils ever so delicately to not fully alert the purple python, still shaken over how death nearly got her a third time. She almost couldn't breath again upon seeing Simba lowering his head in surrender while the scaly scoundrel widened his maw. However, glimpsing upon the bulk of coils that had her in a choke-hold gave her an idea. The lioness cub wasted no time in ramming her body against them, shoving it down the tree quickly.

The purple python was but an inch from Simba's head before his head was yanked away from his meal and into the trees. Too many branches to count smacked him around before he finally dropped down past Nala like a rock. His whole body sprawled across the Jungle floor like too much toothpaste in one squeeze. The sadistic serpent would've muttered a clever quip or two over this if the impact hadn't knocked him out cold. Far too gone to feel his huge humiliation fortunately.

Simba kept his eyes closed in accepting his fate and joining his father in the Circle of Life itself before hearing Nala's all too familiar laughter. He lifted up his head to find the purple python had vanished and that the lioness cub was out of the coils miraculously. She was clenching her belly in laughing over something down on the Jungle floor and led him to find the sadistic serpent sprawled every which way below. All his highness could do was walk up the branch in disbelief.

"How's this for 'degrading,' worm?" Nala sassed before turning around to brassily fart in the purple python's general direction. She crudely continued to chuckle at her own joke before noticing Simba coming her way, looking as though he's seen a ghost. The lioness cub ceased her laughter upon looking at how utterly overwhelmed his highness must be after believe he was about to be swallowed whole. Just thinking about his near sacrifice was overwhelming. In a good way.

"Nala..." Simba managed to utter, "you..." However, he was completely lost on what to say or even how to feel about all this. "It's just..." The former prince of the Pride Lands had been ready to die for his love. In fact... he actually felt that he had to for the grief he had caused. Yet it was as if fate itself was willing to pardon his sins by way of Nala saving him for once. "I..." Before he could fully process his mixed feelings, the lioness cub came on up and locked lips with him.

It was only a few seconds but they felt like an eternity of pure bliss to Simba as he closed his eyes and let it happen. Their lips parted as they looked into their eyes and saw the unfiltered love that one had for the other. They had no words to say to each other yet knew exactly what the other was thinking. The former prince of the Pride Lands felt his heart soar to height he had never known even before his father's accident. He shared his warmest smile with Nala at long last.

"Let me stay with you," Nala pleaded with a hopeful look in her eye, taking Simba aback. "It's sweet that you want what's best for me but..." She paused with a swallow and a slight frown. "...I could never go back to Pride Rock knowing you're braving the Jungle all on your own." The lioness cub could see her best friend's expression as bewildered for lack of a better term. "Even if I'm a magnet for trouble, you'll always have my back." His bewilderment shifted to sorrow.

"Will I though?" Simba genuinely asked with a mix of curiosity and self-doubt. "You wouldn't have nearly died in the wasteland if I didn't drag you into this." He lowered his gaze in shame. "That plant nearly made mulch out of you and wouldn't let me save you." His Highness gulped hard as he recalled his lowest point just minutes ago. "I saw you coiled up and... froze... while you suffered..." Tears began to form in his eyes when Nala nuzzled up to his face to his big surprise.

"And yet here I am," Nala happily responded, purring with all her affection, "safe and sound because you saved me against all odds." She backed away to see that bewilderment had returned to Simba's face. "When you got between me and Shenzi back at the Elephant Graveyard, I couldn't help but think you were so... cool." Her mind's own recollection of such a memories brightened her smile without fail. "And when you smacked that snake away, I knew I was in love..."

Simba kept silent for a few seconds in his surprise before finally finding the words to say. "I realized something too when I saw you suffering," he began with a more stronger tone of voice. "I wouldn't last one day out here without you." Nala's blush of surprise was a real treat. "You're a tomboy through and through but at the end of the day, you're the kind of girl that makes every day a bit brighter." A genuine smile returned to his face at long last, his real feeling laid bare.

"Guess Zazu knew what he was talking about, huh?" Nala sassed back with her smile mere inches from Simba's own. "Let's be outcast's together, shall we?"


End file.
